The Green Man in every shadow
HAG installation, by artist Beccy McCray
The Green Man was a term invented by Julia Somerset (Lady Raglan) in 1939 for the various foliate head designs found in European churches between the 11th and the 16th centuries. Somewhere between 1939 and the present day the term was assimilated into paganism and an emerging identity was created for the Green Man.
This may sound somewhat dismissive, but it’s not meant to be. This is simply how all religions — and folklore and myths — syncretically emerge and evolve over time, although there is no evidence that the mediæval foliate heads are themselves a hangover from any pre-Christian religion.
The Green Man has appeared in my own artwork, as part of my England’s Dark Dreaming series, and so I have a particular interest in this character.
So it’s apt that blackShed Gallery in the East Sussex village of Robertsbridge should put on an exhibition that aims to examine modern reactions to the Green Man, bringing together printmaking, installation, photography, film, and painting to present a wide range of perspectives on the theme of the Green Man and how he has been enthusiastically adopted into our culture.
The fantastically diverse approaches to the theme by the artists included in this exhibition mean I’m still mulling over the artwork from yesterday’s launch event, and I suspect I will be for some time.
There are a number of linked events happening around this exhibition, including a woodland workshop with artist and tree surgeon Jim Roseveare, a foraging and wild flavour woodland walk, and a screening of Paul Wright’s film Arcadia.
Getting there with Public Transport
20 minutes walk from Robertsbridge train station, which is on the main line between Hastings and London Charing Cross.
Exhibition details: In Every Shadow
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A project exploring and interrogating the symbol of The Green Man, devised and curated by Lorna Ough.
blackShed Gallery brings together artists and writers from scattered corners of the UK with The Green Man acting as a focal point to explore our relationship to history, nature, and each other. We are excited to present the varied responses and explorations of the theme in a dynamic exhibition with works situated in the woodland as well as in the gallery.
Artists: Catrin Menai / Tracey Konyu / Mark Daniels / Lily Paine / Hazel Dowling / Martin Brockman / Naomi Salaman / John Fletcher / Simon Page / Kate Holford / Ella Husbands / Beccy McCray / Scott Leeming / Jim Roseveare.
We are at a pivotal moment in our history, in the middle of a year of global change and yet the Green Man persists, lurking in the corner of your eye, tucked away in an old building, perhaps sold as a souvenir in a seaside town… Lady Raglan, through coining the term ‘Green Man’, wished to:
connect with an authentic, deep-time form of British culture…sought out pure origins when really there were none.
Venue:
blackShed Gallery
Russet Farm,
Redlands Lane,
Robertsbridge,
East Sussex,
TN32 5NG
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